The home of subversion, surrealism and freedom in writing.

Cathy Ulrich

1) She was always tall for her age
2) But at the age of 11, she hit her head after falling off her bicycle
3) And that’s when she began, ceaselessly, to grow
4) (Later, scientists determined this was due to an injury to her pituitary gland, releasing an excess of growth hormone)
5) The pains at night were the worst
6) She endured them, biting her tongue
7) Clenching her fists
8) There was a boy at school she liked best of all
9) He laughed with the rest of when she stopped being able to fit behind her desk
10) He called her giantess
11) Like they all did
12) Before her accident, she had enjoyed embroidery
13) Now her hands were too large to do the delicate work
14) Sometimes she thought she could actually see her hands growing
15) She’d hold them out in front of her and stare
16) What are you doing, Jinny, said her mother
17) Nothing
18) When she left school for good, she was measured at a height of 1.98 meters
19) She wasn’t quite thirteen
20) When she turned fifteen, she was measured again
21) Her father had to stand on a stool to reach
22) She wept when she heard her height
23) 2.13 meters
24) She was offered money to have people look at her
25) She was offered money for her hair
26) She didn’t want people looking at her
27) She didn’t want them possessing her hair
28) It was auburn, and beautiful
29) Her father always said: Doesn’t my little Jinny have the prettiest hair?
30) He still called her little Jinny
31) She was always getting measured on her birthday
32) When she was twenty-one, she reached her tallest height
33) 2.39 meters
34) It’s not so bad, her father said
35) Then he died
36) She bore that pain quietly too
37) She hurt all the time, forever
38) The aches of growing coursed through her
39) Her body began to curve
40) At first, she thought she was getting smaller
41) She had dreams that she shrank away to nothing
42) And woke smiling
43) She was always having to duck through doorways
44) So of course her spine began to curve
45) Until she could no longer stand up straight
46) She was still growing
47) Always growing
48) Finally, she died
49) She had lived for twenty-six years
50) It felt much longer
51) Four schoolboys were able to carry her coffin
52) How strange that it’s so light, they said
53) Fifty years later, her skeleton was found
54) Photographs had been taken of it
55) She hadn’t allowed them when she was alive
56) She had avoided mirrors
57) She had waved to the neighborhood children from the window
58) And they had waved back
59) The university where her skeleton was discovered refused to admit how it was obtained
60) Newspapers used the word obtained
61) Not stolen
62) Not bought
63) Obtained
64) Before she died, she had babysat the neighborhood children
65) They called her Giantess Jane
66) You can call me Jinny, she said
67) But they never would.

Cathy Ulrich has always wanted to be taller, so she could reach things off the top shelf. Her work has recently been featured in Lake City Lights, Five 2 One Magazine and Gambling the Aisle. Make sure to visit Cathy’s blog.